Four missing after landslide wipes out homes in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake

Gordon Hoekstra, Vancouver Sun with Canadian Press07.13.2012

The Johnsons Landing landslide is shown in this Thursday, July 12, 2012 handout photo.Emergency BC handout
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Johnsons Landing landslide is shown in this Thursday, July 12, 2012 handout photo.Emergency BC handout
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Johnsons Landing landslide is shown in this Thursday, July 12, 2012 handout photo.Emergency BC handout
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Johnsons Landing landslide is shown in this Thursday, July 12, 2012.Handout Emergency BC
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

In this video screen grab a home is seen overtaken by mud and debris from a landslide in the community of Johnson's Landing, 70 kilometres northeast of Nelson, B.C., Thursday, July 12, 2012. Industrial crews were trucking to the scene to help search for four possible victims who may have been buried in the slide that rolled over three homes.CTV-BC-HO
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. Emergency officials say four people are unaccounted for after the landslide "severely" impacted the homes.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. Search crews aren't even sure if they should be looking for people amid the debris around the tiny community of Johnson's Landing.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. The land is still somewhat unstable.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. "It is a very remote area, there is no cell service and we're waiting to get back more definitive word," said Bill Macpherson, a public information officer with Central Kootenay Regional District.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residentsScreengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. A landslide expert and geotechnician have been dispatched to the scene.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk says police have sent a helicopter to the area.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. The slide occurred at the end of the road on the north arm of Kootenay Lake on the south shore. The community of Johnson's Landing has a population of just 35 residents.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. Last month, the lake reached its highest peak in 40 years due to heavy rainfall and accumulation of run-off.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. An emergency operations centre is being set up in the city of Nelson.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. Richard Ortega, who operates the Johnsons Landing Retreat Centre, was standing on a road with a neighbour and a B.C. Hydro worker when they heard a giant rumble. "You could feel the ground shake, and hear it move down the mountain. It only took about 45 seconds. There would have been no chance to get out of the way," said Ortega. "I'm totally shocked."Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. Immediately after the slide at 10:30 a.m. - Ortega said he checked his watch - they rushed down to a nearby home that was hit by the slide nearest the lake shore.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. The building was still "snapping and creaking," full of mud, trees and other debris the slide had swept into the remote community of 35 people in B.C. southern Interior.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents. Emergency personnel were prevented from getting to the destroyed home because the roadway was blocked by the slide, which was about 75 feet wide and 15 to 20 feet deep, said Ortega.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents.Screengrab
/ Global BC

Landslide in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, British Columbia, leaves locals worried about several unaccounted for residents.Screengrab
/ Global BC

A massive landslide at 10:30 Thursday morning destroyed three homes in the tiny community of Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake, leaving locals worried about several unaccounted for residents.Google Maps
/ ...

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JOHNSONS LANDING, B.C. - On Thursday, Rachel Rozzoni had just let the ducks out of their coop at 10:30 a.m., and returned to the quiet house where her three children were still sleeping.

Her nine-month-old baby girl sensed it first — she started to cry.

Rozzoni thought the strange, rumbling sound above her home in tiny Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake was the sound of heavy equipment that had fallen over at a home where some trees were being cut down.

Then the windows and glasses in the house started shaking.

The rumbling turned into a massive landslide that officials say has destroyed at least three houses in the southern Interior community and led to a search for four possible victims who may be buried in the debris.

“I’m in my house watching old-growth trees and boulders the size of my house flying past. And then going, ‘Oh God, if it comes any closer we are all going to die,’” Rozzoni said Thursday evening.

“And then I’m looking down at my neighbour’s house and it’s covered in rubble and only the chimney is sticking out. And the other half of the house is down further, and just part of it sticking out.”

She and others tried to search the damaged homes, but found it impossible because their feet would sink a metre into the rubble.

“We were screaming names ... but there was nobody.”

Officials have not released the names of the possible victims, but family and friends have used social media to ask for prayers for missing Johnsons Landing resident Valentine Webber and his daughters Rachel and Diana Webber.

Rozzoni said that because of the debris piled near her house, she had to drive across the lawn and through trees to get to the lakeshore two kilometres away. From there, she and her children were taken by boat to nearby Kaslo.

Rozzoni, an eight-year resident of Johnsons Landing, was still reeling from the experience, saying other residents are also in shock. “It’s insane, it’s totally insane.”

Rozzoni said several of her neighbours, some of whom told her they escaped with their lives by mere metres, are being asked to leave their homes as well.

She described the devastation as being the size of several football fields. She said she doesn’t know how people will be able to remain in the neighbourhood with all the debris in the area, which has cut off road access and the water supply.

Central Kootenay Regional District spokesman Bill Macpherson said a search was underway for the four Johnsons Landing residents who were unaccounted for after the slide.

Calls are also out to family and friends. “It’s still being determined whether they were in their homes at the time, or they were out,” Macpherson said.

The names, ages and genders of the four were not officially released.

Initially, five or six people were reported to be unaccounted for, said Macpherson.

He said there is no cellular service in the remote community, so it took several hours to contact residents and find out what exactly had happened.

RCMP officers from Kelowna and the Kootenay Boundary and Kaslo detachments were at the site Thursday afternoon with two police dog teams and an underwater recovery team.

“The RCMP has immediately engaged a large number of resources to address the first priority of conducting a rescue of the affected residents,” Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said in an email.

Search and rescue groups from Kaslo and Nelson went to the site and helicopters were being used to survey the damage. A provincial government geotechnician and landslide expert were also on their way.

An emergency operations centre is being set up in Nelson, about 100 kilometres south of Johnsons Landing.

Late Thursday, four members of the City of Vancouver’s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team were dispatched to Johnsons Landing at the request of the province.

The team includes a Vancouver police officer, a Vancouver firefighter, a city engineer and an ambulance paramedic.

Richard Ortega, who operates the Johnsons Landing Retreat Centre, was standing on a road with a neighbour and a BC Hydro worker when they heard a giant rumble.

“You could feel the ground shake, and hear it move down the mountain. It only took about 45 seconds. There would have been no chance to get out of the way,” said Ortega. “I’m totally shocked.”

He said the slide hit the community at 10:30 a.m. and reached all the way into Kootenay Lake.

The 14-year-resident said the slide, containing broken-off trees and other debris, cut a massive swath through the community. Photos and video of the slide area show the debris stopped just short of at least two homes.

Ortega said people in the community of about 35 immediately rushed to check on their neighbours, hoping nobody was home when the slide hit.

Most people live year-round in the community, he said.

One of the homes he and others examined near the lakeshore had only the roof showing. He said they could hear snapping and creaking coming from inside the house.

“We tried our best to call for people, but we didn’t hear anything,” he said.

Ortega said it’s not certain what triggered the landslide, but he believes it may be linked to a spring avalanche on the mountain behind the community.

He said it’s possible that snow and other debris plugged up a creek, causing water to back up that let loose when the snow melted in the hotter weather in the past week.

Like much of the province, Johnsons Landing had received a lot of rain before the weather warmed, he said.

Last month, the lake reached its highest peak in 40 years due to heavy rainfall and accumulation of run-off.

Rozzoni said she had noticed a creek that normally runs clear was muddy the day before the slide.

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Four missing after landslide wipes out homes in Johnsons Landing on Kootenay Lake

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